Cranes, Wildlife and History on the Great Platte River Road

Notice:

Prairie Fire Newspaper went on hiatus after the publication of the September 2015 issue. It may return one of these days but until then we will continue to host all of our archived content for your reading pleasure. Many of the articles have held up well over the years. Please contact us if you have any questions, thoughts, or an interest in helping return Prairie Fire to production. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you to all our readers, contributors, and supporters - the quality of Prairie Fire was a reflection of how many people it touched (touches).

Coming soon will be one of the great natural wonders in the world. Please come to enjoy what the folks along the Platte take for granted: thousands of Sandhill cranes making those prehistoric sounds along with ducks and geese that look like clouds filling the morning and evening skies. For some of us who were born in 1948 instead of 1848, history is still here in the valley. We are not trying to walk or ride a horse up the Western Trail, but you can observe historical markers, see artifacts and visit with individuals who will talk your leg off about long-ago events. Historical museums in Grand Island, Hastings, Minden, Shelton, Kearney, The Arch and, of course, Fort Kearny State Historical Park are willing to share our rich history or the many trails that some 300,000 immigrants used in the 1850s and 1860s to go West.